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The Freedom Support Act directly notes farm storage. It is in 

 there. The language is there. It talks even about the style of farm 

 storage, beautifully developed. Why we put together all this work 

 and this legislation and then we don't pay attention to it, I don't 

 understand. 



Mr. Penny. So this would be — this would not be GSM credits for 

 the sale of this equipment? 



Mr. Joseph. No, sir. This is encouragement to private enterprise. 



Mr. Penny. The reason I ask is because we do specifically ref- 

 erence the sale of farm equipment, processing equipment, in the 

 GSM program. And yet I guess the thing I have been wrestling 

 with is just moving that equipment over there doesn't necessarily 

 get it down to the private farmers because it could get ducked 

 somewhere in the system if the state manages the distribution of 

 these things. 



Mr. Joseph. It goes into these huge units now and the private 

 farm never has the chance really to make any money with that. 



Ms. Cashman. a progrgim that would be very useful for Russia, 

 which does not exist to date, would be the commodity import pro- 

 gram, which actually would allow private Russian farmers or 

 smsdl- to medium-sized entrepreneurs to access United States 

 equipment, goods, services, artificial insemination straws and so 

 forth, and actually repay that loan in rubles. And the commodity 

 import program, I think, would be a very useful program for Rus- 

 sia. 



Mr. Joseph. By the way, we can use rubles. Our businesses there 

 would be delighted to be paid for our services and our product in 

 rubles. We have a joint venture where we are buying round logs — 

 these are trees with the branches cut off— fi*om Siberia. We will 

 pay in rubles. 



What we are referring to here is, candidly, an opportunity to join 

 in business ventures with rural entrepreneurs. 



Mr. Penny. Dr. Johnson. 



Mr. Johnson. If I could say just two things, I will be brief 



One is that I think that many of the programs that have been 

 talked about here today have been programs to send technical ex- 

 pertise to Russia. It would be good if the programs could also be 

 modified so that the business leaders from Russia and these places 

 would have an opportimity to come and see what is going on in the 

 United States. 



We ran a small U.S. Information Agency fiinded program that 

 brought about 50 people to the United States. They came and spent 

 time in Iowa communities. We sent them to see the agribusinesses, 

 but it turned out what they were as interested in how the commu- 

 nities are organized. Who pays for the schools? Who pays for the 

 roads? How do you elect your mayor? What does the mayor do? 

 What does the city council do? It was a very interesting experience 

 for the Russian farmers; learning about private sector agriculture. 



The Russians went back. Of those, 50 people, 85 percent are now 

 involved in some kind of private enterprise as related to the experi- 

 ence they had in the United States. 



So I think gm exchange program that could go both ways would 

 be extremely useful, coupled with the risk-sharing associated with 



